Abby, Zoë and Enzo

We have only been to a few beaches along the southern coast from João Pessoa, and our experience is that none of the water is really clear, but rather sandy and cloudy.  I have a theory about the cloudy water that coincides with the dust and dirt that finds it's way into our apartment.  We saw a BBC show that mentioned something like 41 billion tons of sand dust from Africa makes it's way in the air along the jet stream to Brazil each year.  There are reefs along the coast here, so we thought there would be more protection from the waves and current, but the sand is so fine and light that it's still churned up.  I have seen some photos further out into the water where it looks clearer, but we have yet to see sparkling clear ocean water like in the Caribbean.  We hope to go to the picãozinho and experience the fish and the clear water.

Chris got lucky this year, we arrived in time for him to have two father's days this year, one in the US and one in Brazil.  Here is a list of other Brazilian Holidays.

Other holidays

• Dia dos Namorados - not a holiday - celebrated on June 12 as the Brazilian equivalent of St. Valentine's Day. On this day, boyfriends and girlfriends, husbands and wives, exchange gifts (lingerie, chocolates, and more), cards or a flower bouquet. It is celebrated on the St. Anthony of Padua's day, because, in Brazil, he is considered the patron of who want a loving companion.

• Dia das Mães, the Brazilian observation of Mother's Day, is celebrated every second Sunday on May.

• Dia dos Pais, the Brazilian observation of Father's Day, is celebrated every second Sunday on August.

• Festa de São João (Saint John the Baptist) is a holiday celebrated June 24th in many Brazilian cities - especially the one in the Northeast area like Recife and Maceió.

• Dia das Bruxas (Halloween) is not an official holiday but is being increasingly celebrated in some of the largest cities on the night of October 31, with costume parties with or without the custom of trick-or-treat. In 2005, some politicians voted for October 31st to be defined the Dia do Saci, referring to the Saci, a Brazilian Folklore image, and aiming to preserve national culture from Halloween, deemed to be an alien non-positive cultural influence.

• Dia do Soldado ("Soldier's Day") on August 25.

• Dia do Índio ("Indians' Day") on April 19 to celebrate the natives of Brazil

Source: Wikipedia

Wow.  What a long trip it had been.  Arriving here was difficult for sure.  But today, our first full day was much more pleasant.  Our first full day also happens to be a run on from yesterday, since sleep hasn't happened yet and we actually arrived super early this morning.  The weather wasn't so great, but in between rain,  Nonno Ernie and Chris made their way to the store on foot, and then taxi'ed the groceries back.  While they were gone, Abby and Zoë and myself put our clothes and things away in drawers.  After having lunch and a snack, they took the girls down to the beach to look around.  Abby and Zoë were so excited to get out and explore, even for this short trip.  Chris also took them to the roof to see the pool.  It wasn't hot enough after the rains for the pool, only mid 80s today, and low 70s at night.  We all lay down for a nap around 4p.m. local time (an hour later than NH time) and when we tried to get the girls up at 5:00 to have some dinner, they just wouldn't fully wake up no matter what, so we just put them back to bed.  Nonno Ernie also stayed sleeping and Chris and I are headed to bed around 8:30.

It was a nice night for the fireworks, and we decided to try a new spot.  We went across from the Fish Market and climbed the guardrail to sit on our picnic blanket in the grass.  Daddy was the super mosquito swatter and caught all of the little buggers that tried to land on us.  We were all done up anyhow, with very little skin showing, but those things tried nonetheless.  Daddy got them all though, I don't think any of us got any bites. (Besides the two Zoë picked up earlier in the day at the playground)

Once the fireworks started, the girls were in awe, and really enjoyed them this year.  Zoë said "If I were a firework, I'd be - wow - I'd be a monkey firework."  Then Abby replied, "If I were a firework, I'd be nice and big and colorful".  I told Zoë what the finale fireworks meant and then she kept asking if the ones we were seeing were "the finalians".  The girls also thought that the fireworks would put Enzo to sleep, as long as we sang to him.

Believe it or not, the girls still had swim lessons today.  This was even more surprising because it had rained overnight and was still raining off and on this morning until about 9:15.  I called the pool and they said that the 9:30 and 10:00 a.m. lessons were cancelled, but that the 10:30 lessons were still on.  I was surprised that most of the kids in Abby and Zoë's class showed up, even so their group was the only group in the whole pool... until a few levels up got in down at the other end.

The weather ended up clearing and it turned out to be a pretty decent day.  We went over to Reanna and Corey's and played in the back yard and ate dinner out there too.  We had a funny game of 'red rover', and also taught the girls how to play leap frog together. There was a plethora of other made up games to keep Abby and Zoë occupied.  After everyone's dinner had settled, Daddy made milkshakes to go around.  Oreo cookie for the adults and a strawberry, blueberry fruity one for Abby and Zoë, which they had requested.

Abby was first to come into our room this morning.  She has taken to coming in and snuggling with Chris in the mornings.  After a minute, she remembered the card she had downstairs and asked me if she could go get it.  Zoë then got up and went down to get hers too.  Abby's card had a cute little cartoon monkey on the front, with a banana on his head (and green polka dot pants) and said "Happy Father's Day Daddy" and then on the inside said "From your little monkey".  Abby saw this card at the store and thought it was funny and just the right card for Daddy.  She wrote 'Love Abby' on the inside and drew a heart and colored it in by herself.  On her envelope she had written 'Daddy'.   Zoë opted to just  write 'Dad' on the envelope,  saying that  Daddy had too many letters.  She picked out a card that wasn't meant to be from a little kid, but the front had a beach scene and she said that she liked going to the beach with Daddy, so she wanted that card.  When we were all downstairs, the girls gave Daddy a wrapped picture frame with a picture of the three of them in it.  The frame looked like it was made from different coins all saudered together.

After nap we went over to the Valley's, where Grampy was already waiting.  They made burgers and apsaragus on the grill, and Uncle Tommy arrived just in time for the meal.  Afterwards we had Reanna's home made apple pie, hot from the oven, with vanilla ice cream of course.  Today is also Corey's birthday, so Reanna made two pies to be sure that there would be one left over after everyone dug into the first one.  Abby and Zoë had made Uncle Corey cards, which they gave to him when we arrived.  Zoë did some very careful coloring (she's been doing just scribbles and titling them, though she's quite capable of doing more) and drew a cute picture of Reanna and Corey holding hands with a heart in between them.  Then beside Corey she drew a grill (with fire underneath) with burgers cooking.  Abby's card had "Happy Birthday Uncle Corey" on the front, which she wrote on her own, and on the inside was a picture of herself and Corey with flowers in their hands.

Not only is today our town does 'Market Square Day', it's also Flag Day and Nonna's birthday.  Nonna had sent dresses a while back for Abby and Zoë to wear on flag day, and there hasn't been one day that the girls haven't thought about them and they were so happy that today was warm enough to wear the dresses.

Kate came over this morning and we walked in to the very busy town square and went first to where there was a dance team performing.  We watched this for a while, and then went to find a bathroom.  We checked out the food booths on Pleasant street, where we had hoped to get a fried dough treat to share, but at $4 for a piece of fried dough much smaller than what you'd get at the fair, we passed on that.  We didn't go down to check out any of the other booths, we just headed back home, to enjoy our salads that Daddy had made while we were out.

We got some nice warm weather for the holiday today!  Chris and I went to pick up Zoë and Abby this morning at 8:00 a.m.  When we arrived they were just finishing up watching "All Dogs Go to Heaven".  They had eaten some eggs, but not their toast and so Daddy decided to take us to IHOP.   Chris and I ordered and got a side of pancakes and both of the girls had no problem sharing everything we'd ordered.  I guess the IHOP boycott is over.

At home we put the picnic blanket out on the porch, put up the sun umbrella, and brought out art stuff to make cards.  It was pretty hot with the sun shining right on the porch, but once we got the umbrella set up, it was very nice with a warm breeze.

This afternoon we went to the beach, and even brought the polka dot bikinis!  Even though it was a little chilly with the cool ocean air, the girls insisted on changing into their suits and they had a blast!  They mostly collected shells and rocks.  They also kept dipping their feet in the water, and had some fun running around pretending they were island princesses.

Eggs were hidden when Zoë and Abby woke up this morning, but the first things they saw when they came into the living room were their Easter baskets full of goodies.  Daddy let Abby and Zoë know that the easter bunny had a little help from Nonna in getting the things to put in their baskets.  (It even had edible grass!  Though we just told the girls to sniff it and not actually eat it.)  After the girls were done seeing everything in their baskets, Daddy told them that the easter bunny had come in and taken all the eggs that were decorated yesterday and hid them all over because he didn't want us to have them.  So, Abby and Zoë set out on a search for the eggs.  (Mommy had a cheat sheet, so we were sure to to know where all of the eggs were and not leave any behind to rot)  Next we had breakfast of blueberry muffins, a banana, and a hard boiled egg.

After breakfast the girls just couldn't wait to get into their Easter dresses.  They have been counting down the days until this event since we received the dresses.  Once we were all ready, the girls and I headed off to church.  After the service we had a nice little snack and then it was time for the kids to do the Easter egg hunt.  Pastor Vivan told everyone that of all the eggs 'hidden' all over the Potter's Mansion, there was just one egg that was orange with cross stickers on it and it had a stone inside, this egg was hidden somewhere in the Potter's Mansion as well and whoever found it was to bring it to Pastor Vivan for a prize.  There were eggs everywhere and kids were scrambling to fill their plastic bags (or baskets if they'd thought to bring them) full.  Some kids had their bags full to the brim, meanwhile I tried to slow Abby and Zoë down a bit.  Once all the eggs were picked up, still no one had found the special egg.  So, with a hint from Vivan, we headed back up to the cinema room and Abby found the special egg!  First we stopped at the unloading station to empty the goodies out of our eggs and put the plastic eggs back in a big basket, then we headed to find Pastor Vivan, Abby exclaiming to everyone along the way the she had found the special egg.  We showed Pastor Vivan that Abby had found it and he presented her with the Easter book he'd read for the kids story this morning!  Everyone was coming up to Abby and congratulating her on her find.

Back at home, after a light lunch and nap, we got ready to go to Auntie Reanna and Uncle Corey's house.  All of the other guests were already there: Grampy, Uncle Corey's Meme and Pepe as well as his Mom and Brother.  The food was all set, I just had to finish up sautéing the green beans we had brought.  With a very light lunch and no snack, the girls were really hungry.  They actually really like the marinated steak tips that Uncle Corey had cooked on the grill, and Zoë kept asking for more.  We also had a yummy pasta salad, a red potato dish, some home made bread, and the green beans.  When the girls were finished, they sat with me at the kotatsu and read from Reanna's great big book of Suess.  Then they dragged Uncle Corey into the drum room and got to work making some noise with all of the instruments.  Before long it was time for some dessert; A fruit crisp that Reanna had made, as well as some brownies that Meme brought. After a while, Uncle Corey, Auntie Reanna, Zoë, Abby, Daddy and myself all went for a walk in the neighborhood.  There was this little white dog running frantically, almost jumping on both girls, and stopping all along the way to 'mark' things and also poop every two feet.  At the end of our walk we saw his owners, who were driving slowly by, find him and put him in the car to bring him home.   We left a little after 7:00 pm, along with our laundry we'd brought to dry, and headed home with Abby and Zoë trying to tell us the directions.

Daddy put our eggs in to hard boil this morning, and once I'd figured out how to make the vinegar/food coloring dye, Zoë and Abby de-robed and I got stuff set out on the floor.  I had planned to let the girls do decorations with a white crayon and then choose a color to have their egg dunked in.  Daddy thought that this didn't seem like much fun, so he filled little pyrex containers with some drops of the food coloring and gave the girls q-tips to dip in and paint their eggs with.  After doing this, both girls still chose to have most of their eggs sit in a color cup.  By the time we were done, Abby and Zoë's hands were colored also, especially Zoë's.  I brought them both to the kitchen and sat Zoë to soak her hands in a bowl of warm soapy water, and had Abby at the sink running hers under the warm water, while I scrubbed them with the nail brush.  This wam water did a number on Abby, who apparently was so relaxed by it that she peed right there on the kitchen floor... oops.

Later on in the day, as I was making panini's for lunch, Reanna came by with a friend and her kids as they were parking here to walk into town.  After Zoë and Abby were done eating, we put coats and such on to walk into town and meet up with Reanna.  We never did find her, but we got the mail and headed home, nice and tired out from our walk in the fresh air.

Well, we wore our green today.  Except once, when I took off my sweater, and Daddy pinched me.  The girls and I talked about St. Patrick and his teachings.  We talked about the clover and how St. Patrick used it to teach.  We talked about how their are lots of clovers and lots of green in Ireland.  Then we practiced drawing some clovers.  All day long Abby kept going back to her paper to try drawing more clovers.

After a short kids choir practice, everyone went up to the storytelling room to get costumes on to look like people from Jesus' time.  Then we went down to get some palm leaves and at the beginning of the service all of the kids walked up the middle aisle and placed their palm leaves on the table up front.  Then they sat down for the Children's story.

After this we went to an arts and crafts room to finish up the Easter basket projects they've been working on.  Today they got to put all of the crafts they've made, as well as some other things, into Easter baskets for the eldery in the congregation.  (I think maybe for those who are home bound).  The kids did this so much quicker than expected that they got to go up to the cinema while the church service was finishing up and they watched a movie about Jesus' crusifixion and resurection.  Next we went down for some snack at 'coffee hour' and then on to Sunday School.

For Sunday school the kids got to hear different things regarding the lenten season, Palm Sunday, Good Friday, and Resurection/Easter Sunday.  They started out in one room, then heard each part in a different area, we went all over that church, up and down the stairs here and there and everywhere.  And let me tell you, it's a very large church, connected to the Potter's Mansion, where all of the Sunday school stations are.

A box came today, but it was labeled for Mommy.  Abby and Zoë asked if they could help me open it, but knowing that there were things in there from Nonna that they couldn't have until Easter, I had to tell them no.  They then asked, "is there stuff in there for us?"  Luckily Nonna had put cards inside that were able to be opened now, because that made them forget that there was stuff they weren't supposed to see, that and the bag of "leftover candy".  Abby finished dinner first and went to open her card.  As she was walking to get the card she said, "Do you think there's money in it?" We then discussed the meaning of cards and how we enjoy getting cards because it means someone was thinking of us.  She was so excited to open the card that she grabbed Zoë's and didn't realize until she took a minute to actually look at the words inside the card (she'd already ripped the envelope in half opening it) and saw it was addressed for Zoë.  So then Zoë got to open Abby's card, and yes they were excited to see that they'd each received $5.  So, the girls get $5 richer and Mommy will probably get five pounds heavier.  Thank you Nonna!  (Wait 'till they see their Easter goodies!)

We put up our Easter / Spring window clings from Nonna today.  Zoë helped me clean the mirror and window and then we chose which clings we were going to put where.  The girls decided that the three bunnies would look best on the mirror above the table that our plants are on so they look like they are nibbling our plants.  These girls sure do love decorations.

Leeann called this morning saying that she had to go in to Rumble Tumble and wanted to know if we wanted to meet her and the kids for lunch before open gym started.  We met at 11:30 and had lunch in the food room and then all of the girls got to have the gym to themselves for a good amount of time before open gym began at 12:30.  Once kids started filing in, we got our shoes and coats on and headed home.

When we walked in the door we saw that two packages had arrived from Nonna!  There was a smaller one marked just for Abby and Zoë, so I let them look at what was inside before they had a rest.  There were very pretty Easter dresses, and a couple of summer dresses each as well as cute monkey leggins with turtle necks.  After nap they got to see what was in the other package: All sorts of girl scout cookies, chex mix, gold fish crackers, pancake mix, and jelly beans with a little chick dispenser.  There were also Easter window clings and a door hanger of colored eggs.  Thanks Nonna for all of the goodies!

We started Valentine's Day out with a trip to the library for story time and picking out books.  After this we came home for lunch and then Abby and Zoë had their rest time.  Next we went to some stores.  We went to the Agway store to get some seeds.  We got cherry grape tomato seeds, two types of basil seeds, and a packed of corriander/cilantro.  After this we headed over to Wal-Mart.  We hadn't intended on being out as long as we were out, and by the end of our shopping trip we were all very hungry and getting irritable.  So, we ended up stopping at Taco Bell, and even ate inside at Zoë and Abby's request.

Abby called Nonna this evening and Nonna said that she'd sent a small package to the house.  We told her that we still didn't have it, even though she mailed it on Monday.  Then we realized that nobody checked the mailbox when the girls and Daddy were out clearing off the icy snow, so Daddy went out, and sure enough there was the little care package from Nonna.  Abby opened her card while on the phone with Nonna, and found "Money and a broken piece of chocolate!"  It was so funny how she added in that adjective for her chocolate.  Zoë opened her card and the chocolate was not broken, Abby was sure to tell Nonna this.

Instead of chocolate in Mommy and Daddy's card, there were gift cards, glorious gift cards!  Nonna must have known how much I haven't felt like making dinner lately (Daddy may have spoken to her about that ; )  ) because there was a tgiFriday's card plus a ColdStone Creamery card.  Dinner and dessert, now that's a valentine's treat.  We were very tempted to use it that very night, well Mommy maybe more so than anyone else, but we had company coming over so we saved it.  Thanks Nonna!